Stepping or Stopping?”

“We can make our plans, 
      but the LORD determines our steps.”
~ Proverbs 16:9 (NLT)

A phrase crossed my path this week that made a lot of sense to me — here is it: “God watches over our steps and our stops”.  Both you and I are familiar with some of the wonderful verses like the above (Prov. 16:9) about God guiding our steps. We love those verses! I’m particularly geared to the thought of forward progress — steps equal progress. That’s what we want in life, to move forward, to make progress, to cross things off our list, to feel accomplished, to get things done. We even monitor our steps on our smart watches and sometimes they even give us a visual and audio reward for completing our goals for the day. 

But I think we sometimes make a leap of logic and believe that since we value forward progress so much, God must value it just as highly. Certainly, He must also be cheering our forward movement toward getting things done and that factors into how He determines our steps.

You can see why I had to contemplate that phrase “God watches over our steps and our stops”. Maybe, just maybe, God determines times for us to stop rather than step. When that happens, it may very well look and feel like ‘a lack of progress’ or ‘stagnation’ or ‘laziness’ or ‘failure’. But maybe He values stops just as much, or more than steps. What is one to do when God watches over your stops? 

You can probably guess how relevant this is to me, since, in many areas of my regular life God has determined a stop. Don’t get me wrong, in many other ways, He is graciously allowing me steps. And I’m trying to relish those steps, whether they are well-worn routines or new steps. But it’s the stops that get to us. For me, the stops are mostly related to retreat ministry and the many opportunities I crossed off my calendar for this summer and fall — people I didn’t get to meet and places I didn’t get to go — that ministry came to a stop. 

Maybe you are experiencing a stop — or have experienced a stop in the past. God determines many stops for us. Newborns are a stop, injury from accidents produce a stop, personal illnesses, tragedies, economic downturns, effects of the irresponsibility of others — all of these and more can produce a stop — which I can guarantee you is watched over by the Lord. 

I want to share a life-changing stop that happened to a well-known missionary. I have loved the life story of Amy Carmichael for decades. When I taught Sunday School, I used a multi-part, cliff-hanger story series on her life and I loved telling it so much. But now that I am the age she was when her major life-changing stop happened, the story takes on new significance. 

If you don’t know the story of Amy’s missionary service in India, I’ll give you a very brief summary. Before the turn of the previous century, she made application with the China Inland Mission and was denied participation. After a short trial-start in Japan, Amy finally left to minister in India around age 25. Over time, the Lord opened her eyes to the plight of exploited children who were either given as an offering or outright sold to the temples of the Hindu gods — to be married to the gods — and live out a life of temple prostitution. Amy started a home for these vulnerable children called Dohnavur Fellowship. Over 1,000 children were rescued and educated and raised through her ministry. 

Amy was a serious follower of Jesus. She was also serious about hard work. If she had been blessed with a smart watch in those days, she probably would have fallen into bed each night with 15,000 steps.  In fact she had earned the nickname hare because of her active lifestyle and her uncanny ability to dash around from one task to another. The Lord truly directed her steps, until one day He directed her stops. 

In October of 1931, at the age of 63, Amy went to inspect the construction site for their new hospital at the Fellowship. She fell into an uncovered pit, breaking her leg and twisting her spine. Medical efforts failed to restore her to full mobility, so for the last 20 years of her life, she was not able to live up to her nickname. She spent those years in her bedroom. She had stopped — But God’s work had not stopped through her.

As her story goes, those last 20 years were some of the most fruitful and far-reaching of her entire life. Not only did she continue to direct the affairs of Dohnavur Fellowship, with its nurseries, homes, school, and hospital; but God used her accident in a way even Amy couldn’t have expected. She wrote and published nearly 40 books which were a mixture of devotional writing and poetry which has been a great gift to the church to this day. She also published a detailed account of the actual exploitation of children in India, uncovering a wicked practice. The impact of these books spread far beyond the thousands of rescued children — in fact, because of her writing, in 1948 child prostitution was outlawed in India.

God used Amy’s accident in a way even Amy couldn’t have expected — but she accepted God’s plan — and that made all the difference. God guides our steps and He guides our stops. It is our privilege and responsibility to accept those stops and make the most of them. 

As for me, I don’t expect this season of stopping to last long — certainly nothing like Amy’s situation — but it is a stop nonetheless. And maybe for you, or your loved one, you are experiencing a similar stop of some type that needs to be embraced so that God can make the best use of the season he has allowed in your life.

Thank you for your prayers during my season of partial stopping. I have nothing new to report — just seven more stations on the chemo train for me to visit. I’m feeling well (relatively) and so grateful that I can enjoy many of the normal things that a season of steps provides. 

My Love,

Sue

sue@ccontario.com